Green Knights Can't Dig Out of Hole at UW-River Falls

RIVER FALLS - St. Norbert College fell behind 4-0 after one period and couldn't recover en route to losing 6-3 to UW-River Falls in the first game of a weekend Northern Collegiate Hockey Association series at Hunt Arena.

The Green Knights, ranked No. 3 in the USCHO.com Division III Poll, fell to 3-2-1 overall and 1-2 in the NCHA. River Falls, ranked 12th, improved to 5-0, 1-0.

River Falls scored early and often in the first period, with its first three markers coming at even strength. Tyler Briola scored at 6:09, Alec Hagaman at 10:35 and Justin Brossman at 11:50 and 18:17 - the latter on the power play - to give the Falcons the big early edge.

The Falcons scored a power-play goal by Jake Calleja at 2:05 of the second period for a 5-0 lead. Cody Keefer finally stopped the bleeding at 5:04 to trim the deficit after two period to 5-1.

Johan Ryd got the Green Knights back into the game with goals at 7:35 and 10:14 of the third period. St. Norbert had a pair of power-play opportunities right after Ryd's second goal but couldn't draw nearer. Geoff Shewmake's empty-net goal with 39 seconds left closed out the scoring.

St. Norbert held a 36-17 shots-on-goal advantage, including 27-7 in the last two period. River Falls was 2-for-5 on the power play, while the Green Knights were 0-for-5. Travis Bosch worked the first period for St. Norbert and made six saves. Mike Martin went the rest of the way and made five stops. Scott Lewan made 33 saves for the Falcons.